“Oh, much better. I am very glad you heard of it at once. I do not look at it quite in the same light that you do; but nevertheless—”

“What do you mean? But I know you are angry with me. And yet you cannot think that I intended those words for you. Of course, I know now that there was nothing rude in what passed.”

“Oh, but there was.”

“No, I am sure there was not. You could not be rude though you are so free hearted. I see it all now, and so does the Marquis. You will like him so much when you come to know him. Tell me that you won’t be cross with me for what I have said. Sometimes I think that I have displeased you, and yet my whole wish has been to welcome you to Seville, and to make you comfortable as an old friend. Promise me that you will not be cross with me.”

Cross with her! I certainly had no intention of being cross, but I had begun to think that she would not care what my humour might be. “Maria,” I said, taking hold of her hand.

“No, John, do not do that. It is in the church, you know.”

“Maria, will you answer me a question?”

“Yes,” she said, very slowly, looking down upon the stone slabs beneath our feet.

“Do you love me?”

“Love you!”

“Yes, do you love me? You were to give me an answer here, in Seville, and now I ask for it. I have almost taught myself to think that it is needless to ask; and now this horrid mischance—”

“What do you mean?” said she, speaking very quickly.

“Why this miserable blunder about the Marquis’s button! After that I suppose—”

“The Marquis! Oh, John, is that to make a difference between you and me?—a little joke like that?”

“But does it not?”

“Make a change between us!—such a thing as that! Oh, John!”

“But tell me, Maria, what am I to hope? If you will say that you can love me, I shall care nothing for the Marquis. In that case I can bear to be laughed at.”

“Who will dare to laugh at you? Not the Marquis, whom I am sure you will like.”

“Your friend in the plaza, who told you of all this.”

“What, poor Tomàs!”

“I do not know about his being poor. I mean the gentleman who was with you last night.”

“Yes, Tomàs. You do not know who he is?”

“Not in the least.”